Chicago Bulls: Luol Deng felt ‘betrayed’ when he was traded

Former Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng gave some special seasons to this team, but apparently felt “betrayed” when he was traded back in 2014.

Among the most underrated Chicago Bulls players to suit up for the team since 2000, especially in the group of wings, is forward Luol Deng. This two-time NBA All-Star selection was a key part of all those special Bulls teams from the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. While he did not get as much attention as the likes of point guard Derrick Rose, center Joakim Noah, and/or guard Ben Gordon, Deng was an extremely critical part of the success the Bulls did find in the Eastern Conference during that time period.

Deng started out his NBA journey with the Bulls at 19 years old back during the 2004-05 season. He was picked by the Phoenix Suns (later traded to the Bulls) with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 2004 NBA Draft. Deng was a product of the Duke Blue Devils hoops program.

And Deng found near immediate success on both ends of the floor with the Bulls. He started in more than half the games he played in right out of the gates during the 2004-05 campaign. That would lead up to him playing in every single regular season game at the age of 21 during the 2006-07 season (all of which he started in too).

However, a difficult separation existed between Deng and the Bulls when he was sent off to the Central Division foe Cleveland Cavaliers in the midst of the 2013-14 regular season. Center Andrew Bynum and a handful of draft picks were sent back to the bulls in January 2014 in return for Deng.

That trade that involved Deng getting shipped to Cleveland in 2014 is something that he recently opened up on back on July 9. In a Q&A on Instagram Live (also posted on Twitter) with sportscaster/announcer Carol Tshabalala earlier in the week, Deng gave his thoughts on getting shipped out of the Windy City back in 2014.

Here’s what he had to say on the matter (dialogue thanks to NBC Sports Chicago).

"“When I got traded, I remember I felt betrayed,” Deng told Tshabalala. “Because the guy who traded me obviously ruined the team — and I don’t mind saying that now, I would never speak about him as a person — but just the decisions that he’s made. Because it changed the whole course of what we were trying to do. When Derrick got hurt, we really felt that we were going to win a championship, but when he broke up the team, you just feel hurt because we became so close as a team. But we had a mission. And that was to wait for Derrick to get healthy and go at it again, but he decided to just break up the team.”"

The Bulls were the team that Deng spent pretty much his entire career with up to that point during the 2013-14 season. It makes sense that he felt betrayed by the way he was shipped out during a weird time for the Bulls in the latter years behind D-Rose and Noah.

Before his NBA career came to an end, Deng would spend two seasons each with the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers. And he also had rather brief stints with the Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves. He signed a deal out of free agency last offseason to retire as a member of the Bulls.

During his NBA career, Deng played in 902 games (starting in 828 of them). He averaged 14.8 points per game, 6.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.5 blocks. Deng also registered a career player efficiency rating of 15.4 and 74.0 total win shares.